Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Really great and highly readable and comprehensive look at the history of Latin America in terms of military and economic interventions (kind of a euphemistic term, really) from Europe and the USA. Really shows just how much Europe destroyed Latin America and how it continues to do so - gives a particularly good look at how imperialism works and its effects without being too tough to understand. Has lots of statistics and stories as evidence of just how bad things are that help make it convincing even for sceptics. Also talks about "home grown" problems but makes clear that they have often been promoted by capital to make conditions for profit better. Some parts are outdated - it's sad reading stuff about the possibilities of Allende - show more but the points are still as important now as then and the history is essential to understanding things today, as well as the process in other countries. A really great book I highly recommend if you're at all interested in imperialism, with applications to many things going on in the world today. show less

Written in 1970, Galeano seems to argue in Open Veins for a number of things that, (only) by being implemented all together, could raise employment and the standard of living of the broad population of Latin American better than dependency on counterproductive foreign aid and entrapping foreign loans:
- industrial policy/ national infant industry protection and subsidisation
- import-substition
- development of economies of scale and support for local specialisation through a Latin American common market

The problem is that he doesn't explicitly define or develop those ideas. In Open Veins itself, Galeano says that he deliberately leans more toward polemic(*) than theory:
"I know I can be accused of sacrilege in writing about political show more economy in the style of a novel about love or pirates. But I confess I get a pain from reading valuable works by certain sociologists, political experts, economists, and historians who write in code. Hermetic language isn't the invariable and inevitable price of profundity. In some cases it can simply conceal incapacity for communication raised to the category of intellectual virtue. I suspect that boredom can thus often serve to sanctify the established order, confirming that knowledge is a privilege of the elite."

It is hard to disagree with this intention, but one might easily argue he takes it too far. It is a pity that such an ambitious project that corralled so much research is hampered by the total absence of theory. The choice needn't be between theory and accessibility. With some effort, one might have been able to make theory accessible.

In fact, Galeano himself seemed to recognise this. “Open Veins tried to be a book of political economy, but I didn’t yet have the necessary training or preparation,” he said in 2014. “I wouldn’t be capable of reading this book again; I’d keel over. For me, this prose of the traditional left is extremely leaden, and my physique can’t tolerate it.”

Notwithstanding this critique, there is much usefulness in the historical perspective of the book and the way it combines stories of the development of capitalism, colonialism, the inquisition, and other phenomenon together. It still serves as a fantastic introduction to these themes.

(*) One of the interesting things about reading Galeano from 1970 after Ta-Nehesi Coates from 2015 is their common use of the word 'plunder' show less

Galeano is one of only 2 Uruguayan authors I have read (the other is Onetti). His trilogy Memory of Fire is one of the few non-fiction works that I have regularly recommended. The trilogy is a more or less complete history of America and it is organised as the most humane of narratives possible on a history that is far removed from humanity. This work is an earlier and more overtly polemical history of 5 centuries of the bloodletting of the Latin American continent almost unto death.

Written in 1971 The Open Veins has become a classic among scholars of Latin American history and although it does not have the wonderful structure and narrative flow of the Memory of Fire trilogy it is an incredibly compelling read even for the show more non-historian. Galeano's gift has been honed over the years but his talent for engaging you with history shines even in this earlier work. Galeano has been compared favourably to Dos Passos and Marquez and that is not too high a praise.

If you want to discover how a mythically rich continent can be reduced to penury read this book. If you want an insight as to how the IMF can enslave not just nations but whole continents read this book, What the hell - READ THIS BOOK. show less

Astonishing. Chock full of details that are sometimes hard to slog through. But the overall message was worth the effort. Latin America has been screwed.

The book was published in 1971 so, in a sense, is outdated. But it's an excellent history of Latin America up to that time. The final chapter in the ebook brought the history up to the late 1970s and included a brief summary of the right-wing coups in Chile and Argentina. I remember when Allende was deposed in Chile in 1973, a tragic time I want to learn more about.

In the 90s, I asked a coworker from Chile, a fellow engineer, what he was doing in 1973. He was astonished at my question. During all his years in the U.S., no one had ever asked him. He and his family were likely deported show more by Pinochet, or fled. I wish I'd known him better and heard his story. But it was a quick conversation in an elevator and we didn't work on the same floor. Too bad.

The book is recommended to anyone with patience who is interested in the topic. show less

I have read Eduardo Galeano "Open Veings of Latin America" twice. I first read it many years ago for a class on colonial Latin America. I reread it recently.

The sweep of the book is vast. It covers the entire history of Latin America from the arrival of Europeans through part of the Cold War, with brief mentions of indigenous civilizations throughout. There bulk of the book's research - which is thorough and very well indexed - focuses on the transfer of wealth from America to Europe.

As the title suggests, the book is very dramatic. It rightly focuses on the atrocities committed by the colonizers on the Native American, African, and the peasant populations. Unfortunately, sprinkled throughout the text are numerous unnecessary show more metaphors that make the book more poetic than historical. There are good numbers and good statistics, but they are often obscured under blankets of anecdotes.

Perhaps one of the reasons the book is so highly regarded is that it was published at a time when the English-reading audience first started caring about Latin American literature. Galeano's writing does read a bit like some of the lyrical prose that became so popular in Europe and the United States. show less

No que sea la intención del libro ser un documento algo eterno, pero realmente se basa mucho desde los acontecimentos de la epoca en que se escribió para hacer sus valiosas comparaciones con el pasado. Dando ese descuento, y considerando que transmite una visón justificamente negativa de la naturaleza del ser humano, es un libro fantástico, que lo recomiendo. La fluidez con que el autor camina entre las distintas regiones de la america latina es bella, util, y enriquecedora.

Prateleira Eunice 1, Livro 88,
Nesta obra, Eduardo Galeano procura provocar emoções e consciências. Nestas páginas, que transitam pela ironia e, não raro pela indignação, desfilam uma enorme quantidade de fatos, eventos históricos e jornalísticos que buscam comprovar a incapacidade das pessoas de harmonizar justiça e liberdade.